Driver who fled accident scene faces possible jail time
Leo Thomas Hartt, 41, of Swan Creek near Burton, smashed into car with his dad’s truck, which he’d taken without permission, court hears
A Swan Creek man who fled the scene of an accident last summer was barred from driving due to past convictions for impaired and dangerous driving, a court heard Tuesday.
Leo Thomas Hartt, 41, of Route 102 in Swan Creek, near Burton, appeared in Fredericton provincial court Tuesday for sentencing, having previously pleaded guilty to charges of leaving the scene of an accident, driving while prohibited and taking a vehicle without the owner’s permission.
Crown prosecutor Rodney Jordan said RCMP officers responded to the scene of a two-vehicle collision along Route 102 in Burton shortly after 11 p.m. July 16.
Officers arrived to see a small Nissan Pulsar in the ditch, with Oromocto firefighters using the Jaws of Life to remove an occupant from the car. Another person who’d been in the Pulsar was speaking with emergency personnel, court heard.
Also involved in the accident was a black 2010 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck, Jordan said, but police were advised the driver of that vehicle had fled the scene on foot.
“The [Tacoma] driver was gone before [the Pulsar occupant] was able to get a clear look and focus,” the prosecutor said.
Mounties called the registered owner of the truck, Leo Frederick Hartt, and asked him where his vehicle was, Jordan said. The owner responded that it was out in his driveway in Swan Creek, court heard, only to look outside and realize it was gone.
Jordan said officers heard the elder Hartt yell in the background on the phone, “Leo took my truck!”
It was determined Leo Thomas Hartt, his son, had taken the pickup without his father’s knowledge or permission.
Another motorist who witnessed the accident told police she saw the Pulsar backing out of a driveway when the Tacoma came from out of nowhere at a high rate of speed and smash into it, the prosecutor said.
The witness went to the small car first to see if the occupants were OK and called 911, he said.
“She did not see anyone leave the truck,” Jordan said.
When officers examined the Tacoma, they saw a full bottle of rye inside, court heard.
The accident victim who had to be freed from the wreck was hospitalized for a night, Jordan said, but he sustained only soft-tissue injuries.
“Luckily, the injuries weren’t lasting and serious,” the prosecutor said.
Given the severe damage to the vehicles involved in the accident, Jordan said, it would have been obvious to Hartt that someone could have been seriously hurt, and he left anyway.
He said the defendant’s failure to check if the victims needed help violates a sense of humanity and decency.
“The reason I ran, it was a bad choice,” Hartt told the court. “I heard voices in the car, and I figured they were OK.”
But Jordan noted Hartt has prior criminal convictions for impaired driving, flight from police and dangerous driving, and he asked the court to impose 14 months in jail, followed by a two-year driving prohibition.
Defence lawyer Charlotte Cowley asked the court to consider a conditional sentence to be served in the community.
“He did later turn himself in to police,” she said. “That was on his own accord.”
Hartt pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, the defence lawyer said, and he’s struggles with alcoholism and with undiagnosed mental-health issues.
Both the prosecution and defence cited precedents supporting their recommendations, and Judge Cameron Gunn reserved his decision on sentencing to March 27 so he could review those cases.
He told Hartt he’s yet to decide on the sentence, but the defendant should be prepared for the possibility he wouldn’t be heading home that day.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.
I am sure he will never do that again despite the "tough" sentence he will receive.